Sometimes life throws you a bone when the big things don’t go your way.
In this case, with the re-election of Donald J. Trump disappearing into a morass of opaque vote counting in Democratically controlled states, my consolation prize is making money on investments because of the expected Trump loss.
I wish I owned stock in gun manufacturers or ammunition makers, because their products are flying off shelves in stores across the country as right-minded individuals brace for government-sanctioned lawlessness.
Instead, my profits are coming from precious metals and the companies that mine them. Gold as I write is up $47 an ounce as reported on Kitco.com. Silver is up $1.19 an ounce. Mining stocks, or ETFs that hold them, such as GDX, are up big, too.
The investing world foresees virtually unlimited governmental largess moving forward. To say money will be printed is a dated metaphor. These days the bulk of “money” is created digitally. Saves a lot on paper and ink costs.
But the increase in the money supply is just as real. Those who back such reckless expansion of the money supply point to subdued inflation reports issued by the government – an interested party in keeping those numbers down – and say there is no rise in prices, hence no inflation.
They are missing the boat. Inflation is increasing the money supply. Rising prices is a symptom.
Our federal government, the most massive debtor on the planet, benefits immensely from artificially low consumer price inflation and hence artificially low interest rates it must pay on its debt.
This also allows the Feds to give people on Social Security paltry cost of living adjustments that are lower than the recipients’ expenses would indicate are merited.
If you shop for food, buy gasoline for your car, pay utilities, rent or property taxes, you know costs are going up.
But the huge price inflation is in financial assets. The stock markets are near all-time highs. Gold is near an all-time high. Yes, silver is only about half it’s all-time high, but hang on because that likely is coming. Many investment analysts peg silver as the most under-priced asset on the planet.
These investments all are benefiting from more money supply. For a time, the stock markets should continue to do so, too, but don’t stay too long because a reckoning is coming there.
I tend to agree with those liking silver, but make up your own mind. THIS IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE!!!!
My post on this blog the other day noted that regardless of the election outcome, you move on and make the best of it.
I spent yesterday cleaning and waxing my most recent Mustang acquisition, then taking it for a bit of a cruise. There was time spent playing with the granddaughters and a nice walk with them in the woods.
By voting for Trump, by trying to point out to others why I would do so, I did what I could to promote his re-election.
I didn’t expect him to win, also as previously mentioned here and elsewhere, because of precisely what is happening. Democrats wanted election-day vote totals for Trump, particularly in key swing states, as a target for after-the-fact tabulations.
Anyone who has ever shot a gun knows you do better with a fixed target. The Democrats provided themselves with one and, surprise, surprise, surprise, they are hitting it.
In my younger years, I recall that by the end of Jimmy Carter’s term as president, you were hard-pressed to find anyone who admitted they voted for the guy. In this case I didn’t see that as an election having been stolen, but instead voters too ashamed by his weak-kneed performance to confess their culpability in elevating him to the office.
I just want all the Biden voters to remember their votes a few years hence. In this era of skin art, perhaps a letter “B” tattooed on their foreheads would be appropriate.
My sentiments on a Biden presidency – bad for the country but potentially good for me – are similar to my experience with the Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare.
Common sense told me that given government subsidies for their prices, insurance companies would go whole hog on increases. And they did.
But you were supposed to be indifferent because of that government aid in the form of premium tax credits.
I obtained a health insurance license, not valid at the moment, because of seasonal work I did in the field after retiring from journalism, and so have some insight into this beyond my personal policy.
I know firsthand that companies across the board raise rates relentlessly, counting on ever-increasing premium tax credits to mute the actual out-of-pocket premium increases to subscribers. That happened in my case.
Twice I voted against the guy who was trying to put Obamacare into practice. Twice – with Trump – I voted for a guy promising to replace it with a better option. I did what I could do.
I’m off an ACA plan now, having moved on to Medicare. My wife remains on an ACA plan into next year.
Not only has Obamacare done huge damage to government finances, it also has hurt healthcare. I’m on my fourth Primary Care Physician under Obamacare as my doctors either have quit or retired due to bureaucratic idiocy with which they must deal.
I know of pathetically bad healthcare, including a cousin who nearly died when a hospital botched – twice – a sepsis diagnosis.
My wife told me the sad tale of a neighbor – since deceased – whose wife shared with her a story of neglect in his care at an area hospital in his last stay. He finally was brought home for his final days, where the family could take care of him themselves.
Biden is going to be tonic for investments that benefit from governmental handouts and the misallocation of resources and the raging price inflation those surely will produce. Even the so-called green push, with its emphasis on solar power and other “clean energy” will be a huge boost for silver (used in solar panels and various electronic applications) as well as rare earths.
It reminds me of the words of that great college basketball coach and politically incorrect philosopher Bobby Knight, who once advised: “If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”
Sam Ross Jr's site 